As Claire becomes the bookies' favourite, are any of Sir Alan's finalists really worth £100,000?

Tuesday 10 June 2008 22:28 BST

Ex-convent girl Claire Young is the hot favourite with the bookmakers to win tonight's final round of the Apprentice and claim the £100,000 prize - the salary that comes with a job in Sir Alan Sugar's organisation. William Hill rates her an 11/8 shot, with Alex Wotherspoon 9/4, Lee McQueen 7/2 and Helene Speight the outsider at 9/2. Here we get under the skin of the final four and assess their chances of victory...

The Apprentice finalist Lee McQueen is sitting in front of me creeping for all he's worth: 'He's The Master,' he says with starry-eyed wonderment.

'Call it sucking-up if you like, but I've been calling him that all day, The Master.

'The guy's made £830 million and he's a self-made millionaire, so if I can get a piece of that . . .'

The final countdown: Claire Young, Lee McQueen, Helene Speight and Alex Wotherspoon will stop at nothing for the £100,000 top prize

The final countdown: Claire Young, Lee McQueen, Helene Speight and Alex Wotherspoon will stop at nothing for the £100,000 top prize

The Master is, needless to say, Sir Alan Sugar, and it's not just McQueen who wants a piece of him.

There's also Helene Speight ('This job is really important to me.'), Alex Wotherspoon ('I'm passionate about succeeding.') and Claire Young ('I'd be a breath of fresh air.)

Tonight, The Master must decide which of these four finalists has impressed enough to secure a £100,000 job in his business empire as we reach the final furlong in the annual Sugar Derby, aka The Apprentice.

The Master: Sir Alan Sugar is lauded by his wannabe apprentices but he won't be swayed by flattery

The Master: Sir Alan Sugar is lauded by his wannabe apprentices but he won't be swayed by flattery

For now, though, his wannabe apprentices are cottoning on to the fact that a spot of positive PR could be good for business (Sir Alan will have had a chance to read today's newspapers before the show is aired), so they're sitting in a sweltering hot conference room giving it all they've got.

And, if McQueen's eulogising is a bit cheesy, who can blame him? Last week, when the semi-finalists were grilled in a day of intensive interviewing by Sir Alan's trusted advisers, the 30-year-old recruitment sales manager's appallingly mis-spelt CV was shown to be about as reliable as the Government's growth figures.

A background check revealed he'd attended Thames Valley University for only four months, not the two years he claimed.

Oh? 'If the eagle eyes of you guys actually looked at what the camera showed, I actually stated I hadn't completed the course. It wasn't a lie, it was a complete communication breakdown between myself and the boardroom.'

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I see, 'a complete communication breakdown.' (That one could come in handy for our blundering politicians in the coming months.)

And that's the thing about this bunch: I'm sure they could sell a fleet of 4 x 4s to the green lobby, but, as we've watched them being forensically picked apart in the BBC1 reality TV series over past weeks, I'm sure I'm not alone among the show's seven million viewers in wondering if the contestants run on little more than hot air.

Head to head: Alex, left, the smirker and the youngest contestant, competes for the boys' vote with Lee, whose blokey charm has made him the most popular contestant in the house

Head to head: Alex, left, the smirker and the youngest contestant, competes for the boys' vote with Lee, whose blokey charm has made him the most popular contestant in the house

Take Helene. There she is, pretty and perky in a black summer frock, gushing about her rival finalists: 'I've always spoken very highly of the three people sat here and will continue to do so. I think they're three fantastic candidates.'

Really? She's certainly changed her tune from last week, when she complained: 'I'm not used to being surrounded by 15 gobsh***s.'

'It's Yorkshire terminology and was meant in the nicest possible way,' she says, failing to convince. Lee and Claire laugh. 'I think Claire's fantastic,' she blunders on. 'But she is a lot louder than me.'

Ah, yes, Claire: the insensitive, mouthy harpy who seems to have undergone sort of miraculous conversion in Apprentice house by learning to button it.

Group hug: Joy overcomes the contestants as Sir Alan deciedes not to evict any of them in the penultimate episode

Group hug: Joy overcomes the contestants as Sir Alan deciedes not to evict any of them in the penultimate episode

Indeed, so astonishing is the personal change (although last week she seem slip back into old habits, shouting down interviewers) that Sir Alan has wondered out loud: 'Am I going to be able to keep up you? Has the leopard changed its spots? It certainly has. The interview's running a full ten minutes and she's not said a word.

Hello? Are you there Claire? What's come over you? 'When I went into The Apprentice I knew how loud or abrasive I was,' she says. 'All my friends are like me, and my - we all talk a lot.'

God forbid a sleepover at the Youngs. She's very conscious about listening to people now,' she continues. 'And I'm more conscious of my behaviour and my effect on people and am trying to change.'

Indeed, when she speaks I swear she's biting her lip so hard I can I see teeth moving. So, what stopped her zipping it last week? 'I'm not going to sit here like a bloody lemon,' she told one of Sir Alan's bum chums when quizzing them on the show, looking rather lemonish in a bright yellow top.

This afternoon she's wearing a less in your face black dress - Jaeger, she tells me. After last week's challenge she says: 'The interviews were not comparable to a normal job interview. They'd ask questions an allow you to talk.' And Claire needs that like a Hippo needs water.

'Yeah,' she chunters on. 'I had to litterally lean across the table and say: "Excuse me. Can I talk?"'

Go-ahead girs: Helene described her rivals as gob****s last week while Claire has undergone a miraculous conversion from mouthy harpy to polite listener

Go-ahead girs: Helene described her rivals as gob****s last week while Claire has undergone a miraculous conversion from mouthy harpy to polite listener

Whoops that mouth is running away with her again. She paused before adding half-hearted have changed. Not my whole personality, but I have toned it down. Alex, who is seated next to her, smirks.

Now, Alex has been caught smirking rather a lot on The Apprentice. At 24, he is the youngest contestant, which he seems to think is a good thing. Indeed, if he'd pound for every time he'd told an interviewer on last week's show, 'I'm 24-years-old he would be up there in Sir Alan's tax bracket.

Only, the thing is, Alex isn't 24 at all. He's 25, having celebrated his birthday on December 13. The Apprentice, you see, is recorded months in advance, although we're supposed to pretend it hasn't been.

Only Sir Alan's decision tonight will go out live. And, just as time has been edited to deceive, so have the four before me. In person, they are rather different from their on-screen reputations.

Alex is actually a sensitive, well-turned out young man with a passion to succeed, further he revealed last week, by his parents' change in fortune when they lost their business and the family home in Bolton.

'I don't want to say any more about that says. 'I don't mean to come across as over-defensive, but during those interviews you're so tired and emotional. I think I said too much. Watching it with my parents - let's say it destroyed the dynamics of the family for a while,' he adds regretfully.

Indeed, during the series Alex has been written off as 'bland' and 'superficial', with much being made of his good looks. He is, though, made of sterner stuff.

Walking the walk: The four contestants put on a display of friendship ahead of filming the final show

Walking the walk: The four contestants put on a display of friendship ahead of filming the final show

A graduate in Managerial Administrative Studies at Aston Business School in Birmingham, he was managing four sales teams before handing in his notice, renting out his apartment and selling his car, to take a chance on The Apprentice.

'I don't think I'm sneaky,' he says. The others nod supportively. 'I've been portrayed as a weasel character and I'm massively aware of that. I come from a sales industry where you have to get on with people.

'I've never had a salary . If I was speaking to you and I didn't come across as a genuine, nice person, you wouldn't buy from me.

That's the real me. I'd never stab anyone in the back to further myself. But, if someone's saying something I think is unjust, I will voice my opinion and, if that gets me into trouble, then so be it.'

Similarly Helene, who Sir Alan had grumbled was as enigmatic as the Mona Lisa, is a warm, intelligent woman in the flesh, not at all remote. And she's certainly got the grit to make it in his empire.

One of two daughters brought up by alcoholic parents in Wakefield, she was forced to leave home at 16 to earn a living - again, something she was prodded to reveal in last week's interviews.

'Obviously, there are some tough memories from my childhood, but it was such a long time ago now,' she says. 'I'm 33. I like to think of the good times.

'My Mum's not here any more. She died four years ago in September. We were very, very close. She was the loveliest, most caring woman. Alcoholism is an illness, but alcohol is available in every shop and petrol station now. I think it's a shame people don't talk about it more. A lot of families would be helped.

'That's something I want to do when this is finished, use my experience to say to others: "This is far from a sob story, but look what I've achieved. I've got a good career, I'm a happy person and I've got a great boyfriend."

'I was written off as a child at school and told I would never amount to anything, but I've not let what's happened in my childhood define me.

'Throughout this whole Apprentice process they dig into your life and nothing is mentioned until it works for the programme's story development. If you spoke to the people who work with me and know me, they'd tell you I'm a really outgoing, funny, lively person now.'

So what about The Gob and The Fibber? How do they feel about their journey through The Apprentice story-factory?

'Oh, I think the editing's been quite fair to me,' says Claire, 29, gaily. I ask her how she'd make a difference to Sir Alan's business and that mouth is soon back in business.

'I think I will challenge him,' she says. 'Not many people do it, because they're quite scared of him. I'll bring a lot of drive and energy and hopefully a different outlook, because I am very different to people within his organisation. It's very male-dominated, older, a little bit more old-school. Hopefully I could go in and shake things up.'

All of which I suspect will go down as well as the Bradford & Bingley's end-of-year figures in tonight's boardroom.

And what about Lee's chances? 'What you see is what you get with me,' he says proudly. 'I'm not the finished article. I'm not very polished in certain areas. Yes, there's that breath-of-fresh-air thing, but it's about building relationships. Business is about getting on with people but equally having fun.'

And Lee, for all his cheesiness, is good at both. He is undoubtedly the most popular among the four finalists and entertains with his blokey charm throughout this interview. He's good at sucking up, too.

'Look,' he says. 'I know a reality TV programme is a strange way of going about getting a job, but to get the chance to actually demonstrate that you can make money from nothing, or build a business from scratch in front of someone like Sir Alan. . .' (that starry wonderment is back).

'And, let's be honest, if I don't get the job I've showcased my skills to millions of people.'

Indeed. But, with his cheesy charm and supreme self-confidence, my money's on the fact he won't have to send out those misspelt CVs to any other companies after tonight's show.

Provided, of course, he hasn't had another 'complete communication breakdown'.